Posted on 05/26/2007 1:49:34 PM PDT by Eurotwit
A few weeks ago – in between Hillary Clinton’s official entry into the presidential race and the first Republican primary debate of the cycle – the fiery online conservative forum Free Republic marked a decade in operation as one of the premier online forums for right-wing political discussion.
It also experienced one of the biggest internal battles to rock the site since the 2000 election of George W. Bush -- a tumultuous campaign year that nearly tore the site apart, as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support.
At the heart of the latest controversy: the fight over the conservative bona fides of Rudy Giuliani.
Over the past few weeks, chaos has reigned in the “Freeper” community as members sympathetic to the former mayor's candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign on the popular conservative web forum. Another significant chunk of commenters have migrated away from the controversial site over the action, according to a number of former site members and conservative bloggers who have been tracking the situation.
In a plaintive post on the blog “Sweetness & Light,” exiled commenter Steve Gilbert, who says he does not support the former mayor’s campaign, blasted the site’s new “anti-Giuliani, anti-abortion jihad.” Since George W. Bush was elected president, he wrote, “there haven’t been any large scale [Free Republic] purges to speak of – until now.”
The fight began one month ago, when site founder Jim Robinson posted an anti-Giuliani manifesto titled: “Giuliani as the GOP presidential nominee would be a dagger in the heart of the conservative movement.” Then the virtual ax started to swing. Longtime posters to the freewheeling discussion threads, used to serious no-holds-barred web etiquette, were still stunned by the intensity of the anti-Rudy activity; conservative blogs buzzed with the development.
“Jim Robinson has been going on a tear demonizing Rudy Giuliani, because Rudy (agreeing with the vast majority of Americans), is personally opposed to abortions on a moral level…” complained a user on the GOPUSA Web site. “Anyone who posts any support for Giuliani at the site, if it's at all forceful, will be banned.”
(“Normally, we don't allow complaints about other conservative forums,” chided the moderator, but “…because it is being discussed all over the Internet, I'll make an exception.”)
Just a few months ago, Rudy Giuliani placed second in an early Free Republic straw poll; now, his support on the site has been virtually eliminated. “After the ‘April Purge,’ I don't think there are any Rudybots left around here,” noted Free Republic commenter “upchuck” in one recent post. “And if there are, they're not posting pro-Rudy stuff :).”
The forums weren’t the only venue for the Free Republic’s new antagonism toward Mr. Giuliani, which coincided with a wave of comments expressing similar sentiments from other corners of the conservative movement. A few days after Mr. Giuliani’s equivocal Roe v. Wade comments at the Republican presidential debate on May 3, a new “STOP RUDY NOW News & Information Thread” was featured on the site, and a newly-created stand-alone category debuted via a link from the homepage: “The Giuliani Truth File.” (So far this campaign season, Mr. Giuliani is the only candidate – Republican or Democratic – to be singled out for that level of scrutiny from the Free Republic.)
Why Rudy? Why now? Some conservative bloggers and former commenters contacted for their view of the continuing controversy say they believe that site founder Jim Robinson holds ideologically middling Republicans like Mr. Giuliani responsible for the GOP’s congressional loss and current woes. (They asked that their names be kept out of this story for fear of antagonizing the famously frisky site regulars.)
Others claim that the former mayor’s top-tier status is spurring frantic site administrators into action. Finally, one popular theory holds that the Free Republic is secretly hoping for another Clinton presidency that would send its Alexa ratings soaring back to levels it hasn’t experienced since its halcyon days of the Clinton impeachment, when a since-soured relationship with blog pioneer Matt Drudge and overwhelming anti-Clinton sentiment in Republican ranks helped make Free Republic one of the hottest Web sites in the nation. It hasn't recovered that luster since the Bush administration took over.
“It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s an observation,” said one blogger, who describes himself as a half-hearted Mitt Romney supporter. “They’ve still got a brand name that means something, but they’re not what they were in terms of real-world impact. A Hillary presidency would get them there.”
Robinson himself could not be reached for comment, but his original post laid out his case against Mr. Giuliani – a graphics-heavy presentation of some of the former mayor’s most damning moderate quotes in mainstream media venues, along with a color-coded report card tracking his less-than-doctrinaire positions on abortion, immigration, gays and guns.
Robinson, it should be noted, famously blasted George W. Bush’s presidential candidacy back in 2000, before a dramatic late-campaign about-face that saw him emerge as one of the GOP ticket’s biggest supporters. But whether or not Free Republic experiences a similar election-year shift this cycle, the site’s current campaign is spreading a dangerous primary-season meme of Rudy Giuliani as big-city liberal – and turning one of the most influential web forums in conservatism into an exclusive gathering place for those who share that view.
THIS thread...not the BZT is where I have read your comments high-giving certain posters who are still getting aroused over the loss of legendary Freepers.
I just say somebody tear into Peach. How dare anyone with a brain and a straight face call FRiends such as Peach those vile names?
She liked Rudy. Big effin deal!
Other outspoken Freepers such as Howlin...sinkspur...pukindog...Miss Marple...Miss Didi...McGavin999, etc.. Come on! We should be so thankful to have had posters with such intellect and a sense of humor.
Now you got me all upset again. ;^(
Cheers!
the left is already fractured. but they follow the principle of always getting their act together before the election to vote against the more conservative candidate.
Perhaps you have to be banned from FR to get in on that secret.
Are you denying that there is a hidden thread or simply stating that you don't participate in it?
Can you freaking READ???
Yep, it was their glee over Terri's murder that really established what type of people many of them were.
Show me links to posts where they expressed glee over the sad death of Terri Schiavo.
You're full of it.
Wow, this week’s media template, and it is all over the left blogs, is how the “evil right” is goin to Harriette Miers Rudy Tooty.
Yes, Harriette Miers is now a verb.
For your information most WAkers are of the mindset that whoever the GOP nominee turns out to be...will be supported 110%.
Their goal is to defeat the Socialist heading the RAT party.
Furthermore, the vast majority of posts I've read over there aren't anti FR in anyway...just the opposite.
Let's look at how "kind" Peach was:
| Thompson PAC Benefits Son More Than Republicans |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to NittanyLion On News/Activism 04/21/2007 10:15:11 PM EDT · 181 of 215 I’ll give you a call the second I give a darn what you think about anything. Post Reply | Private Reply | To 179 | View Replies |
||||||
| Will FR embrace socialism to make way for Rudy Giuliani as a Republican presidential candidate? |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to mkjessup On News/Activism 04/21/2007 11:14:09 PM EDT · 365 of 18,315 I just love it when you whiners call in management. It’s like you’re crying: “Mommy, mommy, she supports a Republican I don’t like”. Sheesh. Post Reply | Private Reply | To 353 | View Replies |
||||||
| Will FR embrace socialism to make way for Rudy Giuliani as a Republican presidential candidate? |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to Jim Robinson On News/Activism 04/21/2007 11:18:02 PM EDT · 381 of 18,315 Oh, please. If you consider mentioning that Reagan signed an amnesty bill trashing him, then you’ll just be “forced” to ban me. Ditto with mentioning that Reagan used to be a Democrat and signed what at the time was the most liberal abortion legislation in the nation. Post Reply | Private Reply | To 371 | View Replies |
||||||
| Thompson PAC Benefits Son More Than Republicans |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to Carry_Okie On News/Activism 04/21/2007 11:19:07 PM EDT · 192 of 215 Take a hike. I’m not here to answer your questions. Post Reply | Private Reply | To 191 | View Replies |
||||||
|
|
||||||
| Will FR embrace socialism to make way for Rudy Giuliani as a Republican presidential candidate? |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to Peach On News/Activism 04/21/2007 11:54:38 PM EDT · 537 of 18,315 You said that Jim was just making conservatives feel at home again. And I said which conservatives are those? Certainly not fiscal conservatives. Or law and order conservatives. Maybe he’s making socons feel at home, but since when are those the only conservatives? If those were the most important conservatives, why didn’t Newt’s Contract with America mention one single sentence about abortion or guns? If socons were so concerned with abortion why did they spend most of last year complaining about spending (fiscal conservative issues) instead of abortion? It’s like they’re unappeasable. Post Reply | Private Reply | To 504 | View Replies |
||||||
| Will FR embrace socialism to make way for Rudy Giuliani as a Republican presidential candidate? |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to Jim Robinson On News/Activism 04/22/2007 12:33:39 AM EDT · 702 of 18,315 Pure class all the way, Jim. So nice of you to say. /s Post Reply | Private Reply | To 691 | View Replies |
||||||
|
|
||||||
| Will FR embrace socialism to make way for Rudy Giuliani as a Republican presidential candidate? |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to CharlesWayneCT On News/Activism 04/22/2007 4:32:56 AM EDT · 1,572 of 18,315 So let’s see. We can’t speak badly of other unannounced candidates. We can’t speak badly of announced candidates. But we can have spam, name calling, swear words, pictures of partial birth abortions, etc., on Rudy threads. Got it. Just wanted to make sure I was up on all the new frickin rules. (I just love that we can talk this way now; it adds to much to the conversation). Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1,559 | View Replies |
||||||
| Will FR embrace socialism to make way for Rudy Giuliani as a Republican presidential candidate? |
||||||
| Posted by Peach to Jim Robinson On News/Activism 04/22/2007 5:48:43 AM EDT · 1,657 of 18,315 Oh my gosh. I actually logged back onto the computer to check something else and saw this post. So now it’s attacking Ronald Reagan to post his record? Anyone who knows me for these last 9 years has seen me post about my opposition to abortion. You draw whatever conclusions from that you need to draw. Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1,645 | View Replies |
||||||
|
|
||||||
Correct then. Correct now.
Gotcher back, Jim. ;)
You're full of it.
LMFAO!
By putting a socialist in as head of the GOP. Morons, all of them.
Furthermore, the vast majority of posts I've read over there aren't anti FR in anyway...just the opposite.
Yes, but there's been some real good ones. Early on, they called FR the "trailer park site". They called pro-life Republicans the "fetus wing" of the party. Recently they called conservative Republican FReepers the "Tourettes wing" of the party. They're a bunch of vicious, ugly liberals and now that they're free to act like liberals, they're responding true to form. One of their leaders over there was the one that said here that conservatives have had their boot on the neck of the party for too long.
Are you denying that there is a hidden thread or simply stating that you don't participate in it?
Can you freaking READ???
Well, at least you acknowledge that there IS A SECRET THREAD, especially when there are Google caches of it out there.
Losing those FReepers was a major blow to this bored. Peach has a son fighting in Iraq for our Freedom of Speech and she is banned for exercising that right by supporting Rudy. I may not agree w/Rudy on much, however on the war he is right.
When you eliminate one section of speech or part of conservatism you disagree with, how do you have a full and fair discussion? Were the Trancado supporters afraid of a NE RINO??? I haven’t found one candidate I like much at all, so I welcome all debate. Sad to lose such great voicers of their opinions. Some would prefer a Party of just themselves and nobody else.
Pray for W and Our Troops
By putting a socialist in as head of the GOP. Morons, all of them.
Had they been in eastern Europe in the 1930s they would have been debating whether it was better to be overrun by Hitler or Stalin.
Most of that group bashed Hunter and also tried to smear him with lies.
As far as no anti FR. Many over there have sport with FR to the point some have said, better take it to salt river.
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper, openly progressive, whose editor Joe Conason was (is?) a contributor to Fox News.
Okay... this thread. That makes it even easier.
You keep referring to your dissatisfaction with others’ posts—tell it to them.
Again—what did I post that is not honest? Be specific and provide a link.
Emotions were redlining that night...for chrissakes JimRob called somebody an A$$wipe...a word that meant certain deletion...up till that evening anyway.
Virtually every one of your examples show me that Peach spoke the truth...when you take the time to put it in context.
Ronald Reagan WAS a Democrat. The Contract with American DID NOT mention abortion or gunrights.
Mentioning that Ronald Reagan signed an amnesty bill is NOT trashing him. God forbid. He realized that politics IS compromise.
IMHO, the list of posts you cited validate everything I've said...and I'll bet you one hundred dollars toward the next Freepathon that most lurkers...reading your long list of evidence would agree with me.
Have a nice rest of the weekend. Cheers!
If those are your reasons that Peach was banned, you have no reason. Ever been on an immigration thread?? Wonder what her son fighting in Iraq thinks of those posts?
Pray for W and Our Troops
Pukin Dog requested that his account be cancelled.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821435/posts?page=4587#4587
"Tough on terror," my @ss.
Brits were occupying Northern Ireland. Israel was not occupying Palestine. There is no Palestinian Homeland. Never was. The Palestinians are pawns of the Arabs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.